Certainly, when preserving these letters I did not have any idea that they would be brought to light for reference in such an account as the one I am now writing. They were saved, probably, just as tangible evidence of the beautiful relationship known as friendship. I have enjoyed reading them again, and have found some items that may have interest for others just as a measure of the reaction at that time of men and women to the news that had reached them. How widespread the publicity was is indicated by a clipping found among the letters. It is from the New York Times of May 13, 1910, sent me by a clipping bureau of that city, the heading of which is: "New Woman School Head--Kenosha, Wisconsin follows Chicago's Example, and Elects Female Superintendent."

The first letters to be received bear the Kenosha postmark, several teachers there, former pupils of mine, expressing a warm welcome back to the home city I had left sixteen years before. A dozen letters are from Stevens Point associates, one of whom tells me that there is much rejoicing there at my good fortune. The women were glad about it, not only on my own account but because, as one says, "It is a compliment to women in general." The men congratulated me on the opportunity to work out my own ideas and "to show what I can do." "That is," said one, "if politics doesn't come in to trouble you," and adds the advice, "You must be careful and appoint the policeman's daughter." Another of these old friends congratulated me on the "advertising" I am getting "as the second woman superintendent of a big system of schools, which is no small honor."

Five bookmen sent me most generous words of praise, and approval of what Kenosha had just done, and expressed confidence in my success. I could not believe that these men were acting with an eye on future book orders; they were all old friends, and one of them says such a very unusual thing that I think he deserves special mention. It was L. W. Wood, then agent for D.C. Heath & Company who wrote: "I am sure that your administration will be wisely progressive, and that your success will lead the way to the placing of capable women in other city superintendencies." (The italics are mine.) That he was too sanguine the years have proved; it takes more than one demonstration to overcome an age-old prejudice, and there is a cause mentioned by a woman friend who is quoted farther on, that also has had to be reckoned with.

Former associates in institute work hurried to send letters. W. H. Cheever of the Milwaukee Normal School welcomes me as a neighbor, and hopes that "the new field" I am to cultivate "will contain few stones and stumps." He did not think to include " sloughs and quagmires" in his metaphorical list of troubles,--sloughs of ignorance and quagmires of corrupt politics and secret opposition, all of which my "field" contained, these being far more dangerous to progress than outstanding obstructions which may be removed or avoided. John F. Sims, then the president of the Stevens Point Normal School thinks my appointment is "a fitting tribute and compliment to my service in the cause of education." A third letter begins, "Hurrah for Kenosha!" This characteristic exuberance will enable schoolmen of Wisconsin to recognize the writer of this letter before he is named. He was then the institute conductor at the Superior Normal School, and is now the president of the Platteville State Teachers College,--Asa M. Royce. He says, "This will be a great thing for Kenosha. We shall all watch with great interest to see the results." Charles McKenny, president of the Milwaukee Normal School sent greetings and reminded me that Milwaukee is nearer Kenosha than Whitewater; and that they have teachers to place.

Among the many other friends whose words I read, a former pastor says, "It is not luck, it is justice. ... Kenosha has more good sense than I was inclined to give her credit for." It was Ellen C. Sabin, then president of Milwaukee Downer College who wrote, "I rejoice that your advisors did not drive you away from the place of opportunity. ... I am glad to see you take it. The fact is, one reason women hold so few such positions is because so few women are fitted for them. I am thankful for your abundant fitness." Another friend, Rose C. Swart of Oshkosh who had known me longer than Miss Sabin and to whom I once bore the relation of pupil to teacher, as told in an early chapter, also bolstered up my confidence by saying, "I am pleased, not only that it is just recognition of your educational service to the State, but also because it shows that women like yourself, eminently qualified, may hope to have their fitness recognized." I have hesitated to quote these latter very complimentary things, but concluded that they might serve for ambitious young women to ruminate upon with profit, coming as they do from those held in such high esteem as are Miss Sabin and Miss Swart.

In all the collection are letters from but two school superintendents, S. B. Tobey of Wausau and M. N. McIver of Oshkosh. That there were not more is probably accounted for by the fact that about every superintendent in the state, to whom Kenosha seemed a more desirable place than the one he occupied, had been an applicant at Kenosha, and hence, they very naturally did not feel impelled to congratulate me. Mr. McIver says, "I want to be among the first of the Superintendents of the State to welcome you into our fraternity." He rather overestimated the congratulatory ardor of his fraternity, but he meant what he said and his final words were, "I hope you will give me any opportunity which may present itself to be of assistance to you." This offer was one that I availed myself of, especially during the first year; help with questions of business management, and advice concerning other practical affairs receiving his kind attention.

I will also quote Mr. Tobey, who probably knew from experience what outside causes may arise to affect the success of a superintendent, "I am glad that you are to have an opportunity to work out your ideals of a good school system, and I sincerely hope that the school authorities will leave you untrammeled to work out your problems, and that the Board will give you the hearty coöperation without which most of your energies will be unavailing."

What seemed like a promise of really finding the conditions desired for me by Mr. Tobey, was conveyed by a letter from Albert E. Buckmaster, chairman of the teachers' committee of the school board of Kenosha, who, under date of May 11, 1910, officially announced my election on the evening previous, and added, "I think I may say that I have never known a better feeling and interest generally, among the members of the Board, and I think you will have the hearty coöperation of every member in your work for the coming year."

These expressions of confidence tended to antidote whatever lingering traces remained of President Salisbury's prophecy of failure. But they also increased the weight of responsibility: the responsibility of really justifying the congratulations heaped upon Kenosha; the responsibility to womankind to make good; the responsibility of meeting the challenge of men who would be "watching" as one had said, to see what would happen; in short, the responsibility of making this experiment of electing a "female superintendent" a success.

The spring months of my year in Whitewater were saddened by the loss of two intimate and highly esteemed friends. Miss Bessie E. Wells of Kenosha (mention of whom was made in Chapter XI) for many years a teacher in the Kenosha high school and my yoke-fellow there before I went to Stevens Point, died on April 8, 1910. Mrs. Ellen Moffitt Pray, wife of T. B. Pray, and closely associated with me during my twelve years at Stevens Point, died in Madison in May. She was buried in Whitewater, the old home of the family.

General Plan for the Following Account of My Kenosha Superintendency

As might reasonably be expected, the woman's point of view in an executive office was different from a man's; different in method of attack, different in order of procedure, and the placement of emphasis in that procedure. Whether or not these are best can be judged only from results, some of which will be described in this recital. I hope also to convey the idea that in order to preserve a proper balance in decisions, women should share with men the important public responsibilities of school board members,--women of ability and good sense, and men of business integrity, and clear purpose, men with the right interest in and actual knowledge of public schools,--these make the combination best for such an important public board.

In the eleven years covered by this part of my story, much of interest in matters of school administration happened. I did have the opportunity as my friends had wished, to work out some of my ideals and in doing so, there came to me many personal experiences that a man would probably not have enjoyed, and others that he would not have endured.

To give an account including only the most important of these would require the compass of a book, a project urged upon me by prominent women educators before the invitation came to write these Memoirs. But now, at the close of this long story, only a few of what seem to be the most interesting or important happenings will be given. There will also be included accounts of conditions and items of a statistical character which may have historical value for comparison with the present time.

The period naturally resolves itself into certain epochs, each of which was marked by the publishing (except for the last one) of a report, addressed to the school board and designed for the public. These pamphlets, together with the records of that board and with the valued possession of eight scrapbooks, some of them very corpulent with the stuffing of clippings relating to school affairs, afford me now "an embarrassment of riches"; while my diaries, although somewhat spasmodic in character and completeness--as affected probably by the degree of fatigue felt after the work of the day--furnish some material of the nature not always suited to the records previously mentioned, but which the lapse of time has rendered quite innocuous.

My Work Begins

The forty-first annual commencement of the Whitewater Normal School occurred on June 22, 1910, after which I moved to Kenosha and settled down to live at the home of Louis M. Thiers. This home was beautifully located across from Library Park, and at a convenient walking distance from down town.

On Monday, June 27, I went to the office of the school board--then a rented, second-floor, back room in a business building on Market Square, the purpose of my visit being to "look about and take account of stock," as it were. That date marks the beginning of regular work as superintendent of the Kenosha schools. My "place of opportunity," to use Miss Sabin's phrase, opened up unexpectedly soon.

My predecessor in office, who had served Kenosha since 1904 seemed very glad for some reason to get away from Kenosha, and departed on a trip to the Pacific coast several weeks before the close of the school year. All the important business incidental to closing had been left to the two office assistants, both of whom, in the discharge of their duties, were fortunately experienced and dependable. These assistants were Miss Ella F. Powers, clerk and stenographer, who kept the books and attended to all the business of the office; and Joseph M. Scholey, supervisor of janitors and buildings, and also attendance officer. Of the former, I want to say that her memory of persons, places, events and of innumerable business transactions has always been a marvel to me; while her discretion as to which matters were, and which were not for the ears of "interested inquirers" added greatly to her qualifications for the position she held. Soon I came to regard her as wholly trustworthy. The latter was a regular "good man Friday" for me, the chief objectionable thing about him being that for which he was in no way to blame; namely, he was the brother of the mayor,--an unfortunate relationship especially about election time, for a really conscientious attendance officer. But trouble with this meddling relative was, after a while, reduced by a turn of the political wheel, and finally removed entirely by a "dispensation of Providence." These two faithful assistants rendered me great help in the initiatory work of getting hold of the situation, and for two years they alone constituted my "office force."

The School Board

Since the first school board I worked with Kenosha was a typical one, I will devote a few lines to a description of its members. The president of the board was G. H. Curtiss who was secretary of the Chicago Rockford Hosiery Company, now known as the "Allen A." His recorded speech of acceptance of that office at the time of the organization of the board expressed a very laudable ambition to "bring our schools to be second to none in the State of Wisconsin," which condition he believed could be done by "engaging the very best Superintendent we could employ and working with him." While he later voted for "her," he was doubtful about the wisdom of the choice, and frankly confessed this fact to me several years later. One of the first things he did after my election was to have a rule passed by the board cutting out smoking during sessions, but I doubt if this could be construed as having an ulterior motive designed to affect my popularity. Perhaps he did not smoke. The other fifteen members represented various walks of life. There were two lawyers, one dentist, the sexton of the cemetery, one foreman and four workmen in different factories, a teamster, a man in the lumber business, one keeper of a livery stable, the owner and manager of a brickyard, a man in the grocery business, and a dealer in paint and wallpaper. All but two of these had served on the school board before; for five of them this was their second year, and for three their third year. It was the ninth year of another, and the fourth, fifth, sixth or eighth of five others. So it was a somewhat experienced board.

Nearly every day that summer found me busy with school matters of various sorts that needed attention. Had my salary begun on June 27, instead of September 6, I could not have worked harder.

What I found to Do

While details of the work done that summer are out of order, a few things will be mentioned. Of course, vacancies in the teaching force had to be filled, and among these was the very important one of high school principal. The young man chosen from among the more than forty applicants for the position was Oliver S. Thompson of Waukegan. His college record as an athlete and the promise of having that attractive high school interest furthered counted with the high school committee of the board.

One of the first innovations which I moved for, was in the interests of manual training,--a trace, probably, of my Menomonie experience. The school board were quite ready for it. Five years before this time, Thomas B. Jeffery, the head of a great automobile industry in Kenosha, had donated the equipment of a manual training shop in the high school building, and younger boys in near-by grade schools had been afforded a taste of such work. It was not, therefore, difficult to convince the board that the time had arrived for the extension of the privilege to all schools, and for the addition of a supervisor of manual training to the teaching force. Frank M. Karnes, a native of Kenosha County, was selected for that position at a salary of $1,200. He was the first full-time special supervisor of the Kenosha schools. He immediately went forward with the equipment of the shops at grade school centers.

The kindergarten early claimed my attention and this cause also required school board action that summer, and involved a lot of work for me. There were kindergartens in only four of the schools, but in the districts where they were more needed they were lacking, namely, those where the foreign-born predominated. Believing the kindergarten to be one of our greatest Americanization agencies, I urged action by the board for the extension of their influence throughout the city, and secured such action, with a small appropriation for equipment of four more kindergarten rooms. An entirely new task thus came to me--but the best possible assistance in its performance was freely given me by Miss Nina C. Vandewalker, head of the kindergarten training school of the Milwaukee Normal School. The rooms were ready when school opened, and well trained young women hired to take charge of them. I was proud of this achievement, and little suspected that the first serious attack upon me by a prominent public personage would be made on account of these same kindergartens,--a story of political interference to be related later.

It was in connection with the kindergartens that I was able to get another part-time supervisor into the school force the first year. Miss Edna E. Hood of Racine, a graduate of the school of education, University of Chicago, who had for five years been in charge of one of the Kenosha kindergartens, was released from afternoon work to act as supervisor of kindergartens and to have general charge of the sewing. Since that time Miss Hood has been an important member of the supervisory force of the Kenosha schools. Her willingness to work, her ambition to qualify by further study, her genius for details, and reliability in matters of organization and planning caused a gravitation of duties in her direction, whenever a pressing need arose, until her load was heavier than it should have been.

This brings me to the most important piece of work accomplished that summer--important in its bearing upon the efficient working of the entire school system and without which it would hardly be entitled to be called a "system."

When, at the time of my first visit to the school board office, I asked for a copy of the course of study, and a few sheets of paper were handed me containing directions about textbooks and pages to be covered, it seemed to me that teachers, especially those new to the work, needed more guidance than these afforded. So I settled myself to the task of preparing it--not a new undertaking, fortunately, but one requiring an entirely new adaption to conditions existing in Kenosha. Copies were ready for all teachers when school opened. It was not necessary to involve the school board in any way in this piece of work, as no appropriation was needed for it.

In the scrapbook marked No. 1, I find my first signed article, although much publicity in the form of interviews had already appeared in the local paper. In this connection, I desire to say that the support of the Kenosha evening News, through its editor, Walter T. Marlatt, was from the first a very important factor in all the measures that were undertaken for the advancement of the public school interests of Kenosha. My articles were always accepted and printed in full, and "interviews" appeared at opportune times. That first article dated August 27, was headed "Superintendent Urges Parents of City to Send Children to the Kindergartens"; "Educational Value of These Schools for the Smaller Children Shown." Mr. Marlatt was skilled in the writing of headlines, and since he read the articles before designing the headings, these captions fitted, which, as is well known, is not always the case.

Just before school opened, my second article appeared. It reveals the fact that I had found time to study the compulsory school attendance laws of Wisconsin--something that had not especially concerned me before,--and was headed, "Compulsory Education of Children Must be Followed in Kenosha this Year"; "Mrs. Bradford Shows the Facts."

So the busy summer passed, and it was, on the whole, a most satisfactory season. For the first time in my life, I was able to initiate on a large scale and to go ahead without having to wait for a superior officer to lead the way. I was on frank and friendly terms with the school board, and had evidently won their confidence, for at the July meeting they surprised me by voting me a three-year contract. A motion to that effect, made by Dr. Rowell and seconded by Dan O. Head,--respectively, husband of a former pupil and a former pupil,--was not, however, unanimously carried. The president of the board cast one of the two negative votes, and that puzzled and disturbed me. The other negative vote was cast by a German who was opposed on principle to a woman being put in a man's place, and while willing to vote for an experimental year, was unwilling to commit himself on the three-year proposition.

By this extension of my professional lease of life, my courage was greatly strengthened, and I saw my way clear to important changes and reforms that were needed. With everything ready for the September opening, I went for a short vacation to Lincoln, Nebraska, where my son still lived.

A Few Statistics Pertaining to the School Year 1910-11

The full roll of teachers called at my first meeting contained eighty-eight names. Of these there were in the high school four men, including the principal, and seven women. There were eight elementary school principals, of whom five were teaching-principals, and, in the larger schools, three supervising-principals. Some statistics about the compensation of teachers at that time seem in order here.

In the school board records, the "salary" for the school year is given for principals and high school teachers; and the "wages" per month for elementary teachers. The school year was ten months. When the pay of teachers is quoted as so much a month, it seems more than it really is. The public forgets that teachers have to live the twelve months of the year, and being human and not able to hibernate, they have to live in the open during the summer vacation months, with the cost of living going right on. So the figures given below show the compensation that each class of teachers received, reckoned on the twelve month basis.

The high school principal received $1,500, and the men teachers from $1,150 to $1,400. This was an average of about $109 a month for these men for the whole, or living year. The salaries of women in the high school ranged from $750 to $1,000, which gave an average for them of $78 a month for twelve months. The pay of elementary teachers ranged from $50 to $75 a month, which was an average for all of this class of about $48 a month for the living year. The salaries of the three supervising principals--two men and one woman--gave an average for the living year of $97 a month. The five teaching principals, all women, had salaries ranging from $700 to $950, according to the size of their schools, and this gave to these important and well-qualified members of the school force a twelve-month wage of from $58 to $79 a month, or an average for their class of $68.

The wages of the ten school janitors, not including Mr. Scholey, ranged from $50 to $80 a month on a twelve payment plan, the average being $63--within $5 of the average for the women principals. In the school where the janitor received $80 a month for twelve months, he got nearly $18 a month more than the eighth grade teacher in that school, a trained woman, a normal school graduate, whose pay was $75 a month for ten months. In another of the large schools the janitor got $13 a month more than the highly qualified woman in the eighth grade there. Competent janitors received no more than their due for the service upon which the comfort and health of pupils and teachers so largely depended, but teachers were, as was very generally the case, underpaid, and to improve that condition became one of my purposes. I knew that progress would have to be made slowly, step by step.

School attendance, as reported by me at the September meeting of the board, was 2,797, of which number 300 were in the high school, and 2,497 in the grades and kindergarten. In that report I called the attention of the school board to the large enrollment in the lower grades and the great falling off after the fifth grade, and then say:

This signified that more than one-third of our children are getting in the first four or five grades, all the schooling they will probably ever get, and hence it would be but justice to these children to maintain in these grades the best possible conditions, in order that they may count for as much as possible in the education of the children of these ages.

I had discovered soon after school began that the school census was unreliable, not only in omissions but in additions. The latter did not trouble me so much as the former. I had the idea that the efficiency of a public school system should be judged by its enrollment of every child of school age whose attendance is not otherwise provided for or who is not exempt under the attendance laws. But how could this be if there were not an accurate count of the children? I ran into many troublesome problems, by no means the least of them being child-accounting.

General Plan of Operations

The diary of these first weeks and months is filled with accounts of visits to building after building, interlarded with expressions of impatience and regret when business of some sort interrupted the visiting program of the day. My previous experience surely counted here and put me at a great advantage over superintendents not accustomed to following a daily schedule of supervision. My happiest hours were those spent in the schoolrooms with children and teachers. If Ellwood P. Cubberley of Standford University, an authority in school administration, is right in saying that the success of a school superintendent may be judged by the amount of time he spends in the schools away from his office, then I can lay claim to such a favorable judgment, especially during those early years, before the pressure of duties in a rapidly developing school system crowded out time desired for supervision. But I was in excellent health, did not mind long hours and when daylight did not suffice for completing office work, there were evenings for it. That old document case of mine usually brought home letters and carried back answers in pencil in the morning for Miss Powers to type, thus saving time for getting out to the schools. There were general teachers' meetings, meetings of teachers according to grade, or subject, principals' meetings, and evenings meetings with school board committees. For, let it be known that the organization of the board included no less than nine committees, so that all but six members of the board had chairmanships. It was this division of the business of the board among these many committees, in order that each should feel that he had something to do, that entailed so much work for the superintendent during those years,--a duty now obviated when a small board can attend to all business at a single meetings.

But it was often possible to turn these conferences to account in other and more far-reaching ways. For instance, after the supplies committee had, perhaps, decided on the question of recommending for purchase, a dozen or two more scissors for use in the constructive art course, or an additional sewing machine for the girls, or manual training tools for the boys, I might use the occasion to tell them of the use in schools of paper towels and liquid soap,--or some other future desirable sanitary supplies; or in a meeting of the textbook committee, to lodge in their minds suggestions concerning the economic and educational advantage of free textbooks. These were good opportunities, also, for getting acquainted with new members and for overcoming prejudices. When you understand that the term of office for these school board members was two years, and that the personnel of the board changed every year sometimes to the extent of nearly 50 per cent, and that in the annual reorganization of committees, previous experience of any member on any committee was usually disregarded, it can be readily seen that for the superintendent to get into working relations with these new situations required considerable time, energy and tact. This was especially true when one or more new members had been elected on an anti-Bradford platform--as not infrequently happened in some wards, for the saloon element was always working against me, as did all tobacconists, after two of their number had been fined for selling cigarettes to minors.

It may be mentioned here that a very useful appurtenance of the school board room was a blackboard, upon which facts could be easily and clearly diagramed or tabulated, and details listed. Such teaching devices are not alone needed in school classrooms.

It required a long, slow evolution to get rid of that large school board elected by wards, the expansion of the city adding to it two members for a new ward, thus making the number eighteen. But the change to a smaller board elected at large did not come in my time. When public opinion in Kenosha rose to the level of understanding the advantages of a city council of seven members, a school board of the same size immediately followed--a reform allowing more time for the performance of those professional duties incumbent upon a superintendent.

My First Encounter with a Political Boss

As a background to this incident some knowledge of the political situation existing in Kenosha in 1910 is needed. The office of mayor was occupied by a man, who as a handsome, promising boy of a good German family, I well remembered. He now was the agent for Miller's High Life Beer of Milwaukee. Besides being the political boss of Kenosha, he represented Kenosha in the State Assembly at Madison. His palatial saloon was a popular place, advantageously located in the factory district of the city, its door diagonally across from the gate of the American Brass Mill, one of our largest industries. It is not an exaggeration to state that at that time the Milwaukee breweries ruled Kenosha through the hundred saloons that then flourished here.

When I first realized this fact, stated to me soon after my return by a prominent citizen, one of my high school boys of old,--I was deeply shocked. My protest that it need not be, that surely there were enough decent people in Kenosha to change conditions, if they really wanted to, was met by an explanation of the industrial situation then existing. The rapidly growing demand for workmen in the factories had brought hundreds of young men to town, for whom His Honor's saloons and others of the same sort were convenient and congenial meetings places. They had money and were favored patrons; and when election time came they voted in their respective wards for him or for others he wanted. Why were not married men preferred? There were no homes to which they could bring their families and there would not be until a big home-building project could be launched and there was little prospect of that. I was discouraged to find my native city in such a plight.

In the fall of 1910 crowded conditions in the schools made it necessary to take up immediately the problem of more room, and it was finally decided to build an eight-room addition to a small grade building known as the "Michael Frank School."

The school board stood very low in the estimation of His Honor and his followers on the city council, and when Mr. Curtiss and the finance committee of the school board went before that august body to petition for a bond issue for said addition, the mayor proceeded to "assault the school board past and present."2

The report continued in Mr. Marlatt's best style:
This was the most vehement expression that the Mayor had given to his thoughts in many years. He left his place of honor at the east end of the council room and marched down to the very railing that separates the council from the lobby and poured hot shot into the members of the school board. President Curtiss, Dr. E. F. Rowell and Attorney A. E. Buckmaster were the men who were lashed by the Mayor's tongue, and after they had attempted to get a word in edgewise for the better part of an hour, they retired disgusted from the council chamber, ... at the close of the vehement hours Curtiss simply declared, "I cannot argue this question with you in this manner."

Perhaps the mayor was imitating something he had heard in legislative halls.

It was during the discussion of the need of more school room that allusion was made to me. The mayor charged that the school board, led by a woman, was paying teachers $60 a month to take care of babies that ought to be at home with their mothers. He furthermore asserted that he had visited the school buildings and had found vacant spaces where seats could be placed. This was true for there was vacant floor space in buildings where, according to former ideals, sixty or more children in a room had been provided for, but which now held only forty seats. He declared that it was his right to insist upon school economy, and that it was his intention to protect the "dear taxpayers." Thereupon an alderman proposed that the kindergarten be closed and the rooms used for older pupils.

Very early the next morning, Dr. Rowell reported to me by telephone what had occurred the evening before. I immediately wrote an article which appeared that evening under the four-part heading: 'Would Save Schools"; "Supt. ... Makes Strong Plea for Education of the Children"; "Must Comply with State Law"; "Mrs. Bradford Answers Attack on the Kindergartens by the Mayor and Members of the Council and Urges Their Retention." My article, which was written under considerable emotional pressure, began:

The Mayor and some of the Aldermen of Kenosha have suggested that the kindergartens must go. What do the people of Kenosha say about the proposition?

I then proceeded to state how by the law of our state, children who have passed their fourth birthday may claim education at public expense. I explained the purpose of the kindergarten, and its value in a city where there is such a large foreign-speaking population; stated that such action would affect within the year about 600 children, and then said:

Now we are told that we must shut the doors of our schools in the faces of these 600 little ones, and say, "No entrance here!!" What do the voting fathers of these 600 children say to that proposition? I believe that those fathers had rather walk or drive on unpaved streets for a while longer, than to see the thing happen that was proposed in the Common Council last night.

The allusion to paving touched rather close--it being well known that contracts for paving had, for some reason, a comparatively easy time in getting through the council, but the phrase that really hit was "voting fathers." That was my "hot shot" and hotter than I had realized when it was fired.

That evening the mayor called me up, alluded to my article and said that he would like to see me early the following morning. He said that he would be obliged to miss a very important engagement in Madison in order to have the talk with me, at which I was, of course, duly impressed. The time and place being named, I promised to be there. Here I will let my diary continue the story:

Dec. 7. Interview with Mayor, Alderman----was with him. Mayor Scholey wanted me to write a statement for the paper saying that I had been misinformed in regard to the Council proceedings. This I refused to do, saying that the proper thing for him to do was to write his own defense. He became angry and uttered a somewhat carefully veiled threat of possible consequences to me if I refused to comply, whereupon his companion cautioned him with "Your Honor, your Honor!" He then adopted other tactics and said that he did not want to appear in a public quarrel with a "la-ady." I told him not to mind that at all, but to go ahead and say what he wanted to. After a few words aside with his companion who, by the way, was a very worthy, much respected German resident of the North Side, the interview closed, and the Mayor hurried to catch the train, so that the welfare of the State might not suffer from any neglect of his important legislative duties! O democracy! How many queer things are done in thy name!

The next evening there appeared in the paper an article signed by the Mayor. It is headed: "Scholey in Reply;" "Mayor and Alderman----Answer Statements of Superintendent of Schools;" "Not Opposed to Education;" "City Officials Insist that They Desire Only to Do the Best for the Tax Payers in Taking Care of the School Children." I quote only the closing paragraph:

Therefore, let me say to the people of this city, .... you need feel no alarm whatever about the doors of the schools being closed in the faces of your children, or anything whatever done by this administration to in any way hinder or hamper higher or better educational faculties [faculties] for the children of Kenosha.

It was not until men--some not known by name--stopped me on the street to congratulate me on this affair that I realized that it was considered a brave thing for me to do. But all I had done was to expose the vulnerable spot of a corrupt politician,--fear of public opinion. The fact that this event terminated for me that sort of interference seems to justify this long account of it. It may have helped in other ways. I know that once when a parent reported to me that the mayor's saloon was offering hot chocolate to little boys to attract them within its doors, no complaints of the sort reached me after I had told his brother, my attendance officer, that I had heard of it, and that an investigation would probably be made. An investigation meant more publicity.

The reference in my article to "the law" about four-year-olds brought a visit from the city attorney, who had probably been asked to look the matter up. Believing that I had been bluffing on that point, but too polite to charge me with it, he began the conversation by saying that he was sure I was mistaken, as he had searched the statutes and could find no such law. I told him that he was following the wrong lead, and got the Wisconsin Blue Book to show him Article X, Section 3 of the State Constitution--an article that, by the way, gives evidence of the prescience on educational matters of those pioneers who helped to shape the state.

The Woman's Point of View Is Illustrated

The bond issue that precipitated the events just recited, was finally secured, and it was in connection with the construction of that addition to the Frank School that an incident occurred which not only illustrates the woman's point of view on such matters, but also the man's point of view towards women.

I was not asked to participate in any of the meetings held for the planning of the building; but it finally dawned on someone that I might be interested. So I was asked to be present when final action on plans would be taken. After Architect Hahn had fully explained the plans, I was asked if I had any suggestions to make. I expressed my disappointment at not finding any provision made for a rest room for teachers, whereupon the chairman bluntly informed me that teachers were not hired to rest. This, of course, required from me an explanation of what such rooms were for and what the minimum equipment should include. Mr. Hahn was asked if a place for such a room could be found, and he pointed out how with a few unimportant changes, it could be done. This adjusted, I was asked, with the patronizing air a little less apparent, if I had any other suggestions. My reply seemed even more preposterous; it was that some provision be made on each floor for a supply of running hot water. Hot water! Why?

My struggle with janitors for cleaner floors had already begun. Among the reasonable excuses give was the difficulty of getting hot water for cleaning purposes. Several had showed me that a single gas plate in the basement was all they had, and another was obliged to heat water in a cauldron over an out-door fire,--in the old pioneer way. Hence, being a woman, it seemed advisable to remove these excuses for dirty floors. Again the architect found a way, and a place for such an installation, which, he said, would not mar the interior appearance of the hall. So a deep sink with running hot and cold water was put in on each floor.

One consequence of this is interesting. With the janitorial work in the Frank School thus rendered easier, all other janitors felt themselves discriminated against, and forthwith petitioned for like conveniences. The petition was granted by the board, although in several buildings, as may now be observed, the installation stands out rather obtrusively in the main hall. I might cite other instances in which the housekeeper's attitude of mind manifested itself in school management and in new developments.

How a Great Social Agency Got Its Start in Kenosha

On the first really cold day of the winter the attendance officer said to me, "How can I keep children in school when they have nothing to eat and are without proper clothing?" Then he told me of what he had seen in homes that day. Joe Scholey was a humane man and his sympathies had been frequently touched by such experiences. His report moved me to another appeal to the public.

Now a day goes by that I do not feel the need of a charitable organization to which I may appeal for help in the cause of some child.3

I stated what educational work the principals, teachers, school board, and superintendent were trying to do and added:

But a hungry child cannot learn, no matter how ideal these conditions; and the truant officer cannot oblige a ragged and thinly clad child to go through the cold to school. ... Will not some person or persons in Kenosha start a movement for the establishment of .... some organization .... to defend little children in their rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

My diary says, "Friday, Nov. 11. My article came out and created quite a stir. There were responses at once." The next day Mr. Marlatt printed a strong editorial and announced a "get-together meeting" to be led by Rev. Edgar F. Farrill. There were twenty people present at the meeting and my record of it closed with, "I think a start has been made for an organization here." The fact is, Kenosha was ready for the movement, and my article simply served to precipitate action. As soon as possible a branch of the Associated Charities was formed here, and a most competent woman, Louise Cotrell, engaged for the work. In the list of names of the twenty-five men and women who composed the first board of directors are those of ten who now have passed on, and of others who are still active in such work--active in community service for twenty years.

Better Quarters

In the fall of 1910, Kenosha was building a new city hall. That headquarters for the school board should be included in the plans seemed not to have been thought of; but once the idea was lodged, the board took up the question, and after considerable opposition, three small rooms in the northwest corner of the second floor were granted. One became a business office, one a private office for the superintendent, and one a book room. All this greatly facilitated my work.

In the city hall, I was across from the police department, and having learned that one source of outside opposition to the change had come from said department, who "didn't want a woman nosing into their affairs," it behooved me to make friends with Chief O'Hare, and to allay his fears and prejudices.

The Open Air School

In the 1910 sale of Christmas seals, the Wisconsin Anti-Tuberculosis Association offered as one of its prizes "a complete equipment for an open-air school to any city of 15,000 population or above making the highest per capita sale." Another prize offered was one month's "service of a visiting nurse to the twelve cities of from 10,000 to 55,000 population making the highest per capita sale," the nurse to serve the cities in the order of the amount of the sale.

Due largely to the active work of Dr. G. A. Windesheim, both of these prizes were won by Kenosha. The public announcement of this fact was immediately followed by the arrival of Miss Sarah West Ryder the nurse, a part of whose assigned work was to find the candidates for the Open Air School.

The precipitateness of this movement took the school board by surprise, but somehow they came to see that upon them developed the duty of finding a place for the Open Air School. The widespread publicity given the news increased their sense of obligation to do something, so they voted a small appropriation for a building and agreed to pay the teacher, leaving it to the superintendent to raise by private contributions and in other ways the money to pay the matron and to pay for the food and other needed supplies. A note in my diary for February 2 says, "Gave full day to Miss Ryder. Mr. Curtiss thinks the School Board can go to no expense in this matter. The day left me quite worn out."

The building was not ideal, but it was the best that could be provided with the money allowed. It was a plain board building,--a little country school house-- with a tent roof and with more than the usual number of windows on the south side. Since this was the first Open Air School in the state, we had no one to turn to for ideas. It was quite centrally located, near the Frank School. A visit to the Open Air School at Hull House, Chicago, brought me needed help about feeding, treatment, and suitable work for the children.

The complete equipment of clothing which had been solicited from merchants by the Anti-Tuberculosis Association and sent to me without previous inspection by the latter, was not all that it promised to be. Much of it was unusable but we got along that spring and before another winter the women of certain churches had helped in making the clothing needed. Miss Ryder reported a number of children as proper candidates for the school of whom twenty were selected. The school was opened in April, 1911, with Mrs. Irene Keating as teacher and Mrs. Clara Whitaker as matron. The children were fed and rested in the way now commonly followed in such schools. It ran nine weeks before the summer vacation.

It was a very satisfactory experiment and produced in that short time some of the results now familiar to all who have watched this kind of treatment for the physically sub-normal and pre-tubercular child: increase of weight, disappearance of temperature, happiness in school work, increased attendance, and the return to the regular school in the fall of healthy children in place of sickly, irregular specimens they had been. But the benefit attested to by parents and teachers could not all be credited, then or later on, to what was done in the school. An Open Air School is an educational center. My report says:

It is to indirect effects that much credit is due, namely, changed conditions in the home. The children after their experience in the school refuse to live in the conditions previously endured, windows are opened, and a more wholesome diet furnished.

For twenty years now Kenosha has maintained that sort of a school for children who need it. Its early history was troubled,--as when a gale took off the tent roof, and nearly demolished the first building, and several changes of location followed. But better times came, and finally there was a substantial, especially planned home constructed for it. Now the beautiful orthoepedic building accommodates, also, the Open Air School.

Meeting of the Department of Superintendents

At the accustomed time of year, late February, I attended, in 1911, my first meeting of the Department of Superintendents, which that year was held in Mobile, Alabama, and had the pleasant and helpful experience of going with the Wisconsin company,--helpful because I had an opportunity to talk over my problems with other superintendents. Our tickets were excursion tickets to New Orleans and required validation there. This afforded us the opportunity after the convention of seeing that old city and witnessing the historic pageant for which it had long been famous.

The Mobile convention was a profitable one for me, as were those to follow year after year, not one of which I missed until 1921. From every one of them I returned imbued with new purpose, filled with new ideas to be reported to the teachers at the first following general teachers' meeting, and with suggestions to put before the school board of next things that were needed in the Kenosha school system. Year after year I met more women. They at first were not welcome to those department meetings designed in the first place for men exclusively, and women were scarce at the Mobile convention. I recall hearing in the hotel lobby a man say to a group of listeners, "I say, boys, didn't we come off from the N.E.A. and organize this department to be by ourselves? Just look around you!" But they gradually got used to us, as women in greater numbers came to fill positions of an administrative character, such as county and state superintendencies, deanships in colleges, and supervisorships of various sorts.

My expenses were paid by the board, and I purposed making it a good investment for the benefit of Kenosha school children. Under date of March 6, 1911, there appears in the records of the board my report of the Mobile convention, and I quote the closing paragraph, which did not lack frankness, to say the least:

It enabled me to meet many of the most progressive superintendents of our own and other states and to confer with a number who are in cities the size of Kenosha. While this tended to a clearer realization of the fact that Kenosha is in some respects at a comparatively low level of school progress, it also enabled me to pick up many ideas of practical value, while it strengthened my ideal of what Kenosha should and may become if things are done that need to be done.

A Printed Report Is Issued

In the summer vacation of 1911 I wrote a report. It contained a few statistical tables and an account of the progress made for the school year 1910-11. The printing committee was called to consider the question of having it put in pamphlet form. This was a new committee, and its chairman was the man who had served as president of the board the year before. It seemed to be customary when a turn of the political wheel brought the annual change and a new organization, to relegate the previous president, if he was still a member, to the position of "innocuous desuetude" which the chairmanship of the printing committee was regarded as being. It was to this committee and this chairman that my manuscript was presented and explained, topic after topic, table after table. In the closing section of it I had dwelt on future prospects, needs of buildings and their location, as indicated by the growth of the city; and I suggested the purchase of sites, when property could be bought at a reasonable price. The chairman approved of all but that final section. "You call this a report," he said. "Well, I think it out of order in a report to suggest plans for the future. What we expect in a report is a statement of things that have happened." I tried to defend my position by telling him that the future procedure advised was based upon information which the head of one of the utilities companies had given me, it being the result of their study of the situation and their conclusion as to future city growth and development. But the verdict of the committee to cut out that section prevailed against me, and the only trace to be found of it is an overlooked sentence in the introduction to the report setting forth in a general way my plans and purposes.

Of course, I was disappointed that the result of my volunteer service of that summer vacation should meet with such a reception, but I can say of that plain little booklet of fifty-five pages, that it was the first printed report of the sort that was ever made by a superintendent of schools of Kenosha. It also served to convey some information to the "watchers" among my male contemporaries out in the state to whom copies were mailed.

Our city had then started on that period of rapid growth which brought census returns in 1920 double those in 1910. It was some satisfaction to me to observe that when the school board did get ready to think about new properties, my predictions and proffered advice, formerly rejected, had not been far astray; but by that time prices were quite different. Whether or not a man in my place would have met the same experience, I will not venture to say.

Success Comes to an Educational Cause

This was the Teachers' Retirement Fund Law, in which I had long been interested, and for the advancement of which I had on several occasions appeared before committees of the legislature. In all that long struggle to get the first law passed, there was one woman, a Madison grade teacher, who worked hardest and most persistently for that end, and whose name should not be forgotten by those who now, or who may in the future enjoy the benefit of that beneficent measure. It was she who on June 8, 1911, sent me a postcard on which was written this message:

The struggle is over, we planted the flag on the battlements last Thursday about 6:30 p.m. The vote stood 52 to 19. The Governor is O.K. and we feel that Wisconsin will have the best State Retirement Fund Law in the country. Your hearty helpfulness in this work is deeply appreciated.

Sincerely,
Elizabeth M. Herfurth4

New Honors and New Responsibilities

Since in these annals, there have been included from time to time matters of intimate family concern, this heading suggests the mention of the fact that I had been honored by a new title, that of grandmother. The event occurred in St. Louis, where my son's family now lived, and where on July 19, 1911, William Bradford (in the family genealogical tables marked "X") was born. But my real purpose in this section is to relate what to some people may seem more important.

In November at the meeting of the State Association in Milwaukee, the teachers of Wisconsin elected me to the presidency of that association. The office was unsought, for I was too busy to attend to the duties which such an honor entailed. But my protests were unavailing.

I wish in this connection to mention especially the magnanimity of John Callahan, then the superintendent of schools of Menasha. A few days before the convention he sent me a telegram asking if I were to be a candidate, and expressing the intention, if such should be the case, of withdrawing from the contest. I answered yes, but aid that I was not a monopolist. He at once announced his withdrawal, which had much to do with the results that followed.

The question of my election was settled in the primary, for after it the other candidates withdrew, and the usual political struggle was obviated. Superintendent C. P. Cary said to me that the election was like those in the olden days before bitterly fought contests were waged. A friendly news report of the affair read:

She was declared the unanimous choice of the Association for the coming year. ... The manner of the election of Mrs. Bradford is as high an honor as could be conferred upon her by the members of the profession to which she has given her life.

The quotation of the last sentence makes me uncomfortable, but a certain consideration has overcome my scruples against doing so; it is that women in general shared with me that high honor. That women did so is shown by such statements as the following taken from one of many letters of congratulation that came to me, "We are proud to know that a woman holds the highest office that this important organization has to offer." That the school board was impressed is shown by a resolution passed at the regular meeting of November 14, 1911, all of which was encouraging and helpful.

Although a year would elapse before the meeting at which I would preside, it was necessary to begin plans for it at once, and find speakers for the program. My sense of responsibility was increased by an article by J. B. Borden in the Wisconsin Library Bulletin for December 1911, in which he predicted this: "A program will be prepared under her direction that will not only be optimistic and inspirational, but will contain the best and latest in educational thought and progress." With such a prediction, there was nothing for me to do but to endeavor with might and main to make good. My rapidly growing reputation was putting me in the plight of Alice in Wonderland when, in the moving forest, she was obliged to run as fast as she could to keep where she relatively was.

My plans to get out another annual report in the summer of 1912 had to be abandoned. When the school closed for the summer vacation, I was quite worn out, and went for a rest to a quiet, cool retreat on Madeline Island in Lake Superior. There at the Old Mission Inn, I wrote my president's address on the subject, "Active Membership in the W.T.A." which speech I was glad "to get out of my system" and thus be free for the duties of the new school year.

All I will say about that meeting in November, 1912, is that one of the first steps in shaping the program for it was getting as a speaker, a young man whom I had heard in Mobile, and who had impressed me favorably by his progressive views, and clear, forceful style of utterance. He appeared that fall for the first time on a Wisconsin program--Dr. Henry Suzzallo, who later rose to prominence in the educational world, and is now the president of the Carnegie Foundation.

Two Important 1912 Beginnings

One of these was the opening of the vocational school in the fall of 1912, Kenosha having been one of the twenty-one cities to make levies the first year of the operation of the Wisconsin Continuation School Law. R. W. Tarbell was the first principal, and Laura E. Hahn, previously a member of the high school faculty, had charge of the girls.

The other beginning was that of the Parent-Teacher Associations, of which I find the following mention:

On Thursday afternoon, Sept. 12, a Parent-Teacher Association was organized at the High School. Mrs. Bradford presided at the meeting, telling the purpose of the organization, which is briefly as follows:--Co-operation between home and school, etc. ... Meetings will be held once a month.

From the successful start made in the high school, the movement spread to the elementary schools.

It was again at a national educational meeting, that I was able to get the desired information about the operation of this organization of which I had heard, and becoming convinced that it was a good thing, Kenosha made an early start. Under the able and devoted leadership of Mrs. George N. Tremper, who was willing to undertake the work, our city made a notable demonstration in the state of the value of this important educational agency.

Another School Report

It was in the summer of 1913 that another school report was written covering the two previous years, and published that fall. It is much more pretentious pamphlet than its predecessors, having 181 pages, and containing pictures of new school activities, together with graphs and tables. It is given an historic touch by having a complete list of the graduates of the Kenosha high school from 1861 to 1913.

In the introductory paragraph addressed to the school board, I say:

Much time has been spent compiling data for the tables and statistics, which were needed for a report that purposes to put in form convenient for reference now and later, the chief facts about the public schools of our City, ... and have given accounts of progressive movements recently inaugurated under your guidance and support.

I wonder how many of the sixteen men then in office,--a group picture of whom forms the frontispiece of the booklet, ever read it far enough to find that implied credit or what followed under twelve subject headings, such as "School Hygiene and Sanitation," Study of Nationality," "Teachers' Salaries and Cost of Living," etc, or read the reports of those who were carrying on the special activities, by that time in operation such as music, cooking, sewing, manual training , drawing, and others; or the report of the principal of the high school, and the principal of the continuation school; and, reading, realized that Kenosha had in three years developed a real school system.

But whatever the interest of the school officials may have been, evidences of appreciation came to me in letters from citizens, and schoolmen in and out of the state, to whom copies had been sent; while favorable comments in educational journals brought requests for copies, one of these coming from Boston, and another from Leland Stanford, showing how widely Kenosha was becoming known. I closed my three-year contract feeling that all the self-sacrifice and hard work had been worth while and that a start was made in accomplishing the two purpose for which and with which I had come back to Kenosha.

In Conclusion

I had learned in that three years something about the policies necessary for a woman to pursue, and others good for any superintendent to follow. As to the former, it must be recognized that men, at least a large majority of those I had to deal with, do not like to be dictated to by a woman. Subordination of self was best, and I resolved to practice it in all matters that did not involve principle. The advisability of this policy may be more readily seen when it is known that the members of the council twitted the school board with being "tied to a woman's apron strings" and some of the men were sensitive about it. I therefore early adopted the policy of concealing the "apron strings" and not allowing them to appear in my relationships with these men. In these round the-table conferences, measures that I believed in any that I hoped might be brought about sometimes, would be suggested and discussed as to purpose and probable cost, as tried out in other cities. Then the matter was allowed to rest. It often happened that at some future meeting, some one would propose the consideration of the measure that had been discussed in the privacy of the committee room, and he had the pleasure of having done something of a constructive sort.

I could never have accomplished what I did had I acted obtrusively the roôle of leader. Any one reading those printed reports mentioned will see that there are few "I's" there as compared with these Memoirs.

But things occurred that struck my pride in achievement rather stiff blows and were rather hard to endure with complacency. One of these came near the close of my third year. Much had been accomplished that year, and the young lawyer who had served as president of the board, close his term of office with a summary of the board's achievements under his leadership. He enumerated twenty-one things that had been accomplished. Among them was the quipping of new domestic science kitchens (for which an old friend of mine had given me $1,500), the installation of the household arts course in the schools, and the addition of another manual training shop in the system, putting an extra kindergarten in a crowded district, equipping of a new chemistry department in the high school, the complete revision of the rules and regulations of the board, the opening of the schools as social centers, and other things that I did not have quite so much to do with. In all of this report nothing was said that would cause a reader to think that there was such a person as a superintendent of school on the job!

Another thing that I had learned, which i good for any superintendent, man or woman, to realize, was the importance of publicity. It was a most fortunate thing for me and for Kenosha, that the daily paper, through it editor, W. T. Marlatt, was ready to coöperate at every turn. Although the scrapbook of the later years how by their diminishing size the lessening of the need for publicity, yet, whenever it seemed best, articles continued to be prepare (evening work, of course), and interviews given. It was interesting to note the change that took place in the attitude of successive school boards on this policy. In the early stages of my work, I was criticised for it, one member saying, "I think you are telling the people too much"; another, "You are taking the public too much into your confidence." The time came when I was solicited to write up certain measures, and complaint made because fewer articles were appearing.

It may be remembered that one of my friendly advisers referred to "stumps" that might trouble me in my new field of work. There was one little phrase repeated on all possible occasions--in chance interview with citizen, in public addresses and in written articles. It was "your school," and I think it helped considerably in loosening those "stumps" of indifference that had stood in the way of progress. I cherished the hope that it might awaken and increase a sense of responsibility in the voters for the sort of school board they created to handle the most vital concerns of the community.

One day I ran upon sentence in a lecture by George E. Vincent, and, realizing it truth, preserved it. Here it is, "The joy of living is not in doing our duty, but in losing ourselves in our jobs; in forgetting that it is work, and playing the game like a good sportsman, who spends himself freely and honestly for the game."

1 Kenosha's population in 1910 was 21,371, an increase of nearly 10,000 in the previous decade. There were eight wards, varying from 1,312 people in the sixth to 5,085 in the third. "Native whites of native parentage," numbered only 5,311 or approximately one-fourth of the total population. Native whites of foreign or mixed parentage number 6,384; foreign-born whites, 7,642. There were 83 negroes and 1 Indian. Among the foreign-born elements, Austrians (which here meant Bohemians) numbered 634; Danes, 630; Italians, 881; Russians, 1,610; and Germans, 1,899. There were also 548 Hungarians, 157 Irish, and 247 English, with a dozen other nationalities represented by smaller numbers. In a word, Kenosha was becoming a typical industrial city presenting special problems of education from the standpoint of the need of unifying its population through the influence of the schools. This is the social background of the story Mrs. Bradford is beginning in the present chapter.-- Editor

2 Kenosha Evening News, December 6, 1910.

3 Kenosha Evening News, November 11, 1910.

4 As is well known, this law was later revised and discovered defects remedied. The papers of Miss Herfurth are on file in the Wisconsin Historical Library.